Romans 14.6-The Weak And The Strong's Conduct Is Based Upon Conviction And Obedience To The Lord Resulting In The Giving Of Thanks To The Father
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 9, 2010
Romans: Romans 14:6-Both The Weak And The Strong’s Conduct Is Based Upon Conviction And Obedience To The Lord Resulting In The Giving Of Thanks To The Father
Lesson # 468
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 14:1.
This evening we will study Romans 14:6, which teaches that the conduct of both the weak Christian and the strong is based upon conviction and obedience to the Lord resulting in the giving of thanks to the Father.
Romans 14:1, “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.”
Romans 14:2, “One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.”
Romans 14:3, “The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.”
Romans 14:4, “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
Romans 14:5, “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.”
Romans 14:6, “He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.”
“He who observes the day” refers to the Christian who is weak with respect to conviction as manifested by the fact that they continue to honor the special days in Israel’s calendar such as the Sabbath and the days connected to the celebration of the seven great feasts of Israel as well as the day of preparation.
The nation of Israel was commanded to observe the seventh day of the week, which they called the Sabbath (Exodus 20:11; Deuteronomy 5:14).
Israel not only observed the Sabbath but also many special days connected with the seven great feasts of Israel as well as “the day of Preparation” each week, which was the day preceding the Sabbath (Mark 15:42; cf. John 19:31, 42).
The gospels and the epistles make clear many first century Jews observed weekly fasting and prayer days (Matthew 2:18-20; Luke 5:33-35; 13:10-17; 14:1-5; John 5:1-16; 9:1-35; Galatians 4:10; Colossians 2:16-23).
Paul taught in Colossians 2:16-23 that both Jew and Gentile believers in Jesus Christ have died with Christ in regards to the ceremonial or ritual aspect of the Law with its observance of certain feasts and Sabbath days, which are a shadow of the things to come since Christ is the substance of these things.
“Observes it for the Lord” teaches that the weak believer honors certain days such as the Sabbath because he is thoroughly convinced that the Lord is commanding him to do so in the Mosaic Law.
“He who eats” refers to the strong Christians who eat everything since they do not observe the dietary restrictions prescribed in the Law because they are thoroughly convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word that these laws don’t apply to the church but only Israel.
“Does so for the Lord” teaches that the strong eats all foods including those forbidden in the Law because he is thoroughly convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that the Lord is commanding him to do so.
The Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles whose teaching is in the New Testament make clear that the dietary laws of the Mosaic law did not apply to the church (Mark 7:2, 5; 14-19; Acts 10).
“For he gives thanks to God” drives home the point that the weak Christian must not condemn the strong Christian as guilty for not observing the dietary regulations prescribed by God for Israel in the Mosaic Law.
Paul is saying the strong Christian who eats all foods in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching gives thanks to the Father in prayer for this food.
He taught Timothy that no food is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving since it is sanctified by God’s Word and by prayer (1 Timothy 4:4-5).
“He who eats not” refers to the weak Christians who observe the dietary restrictions prescribed in the Law for Israel because they are not thoroughly convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that these laws no longer apply for them.
“For the Lord he does not eat” teaches that the weak believer observes the dietary regulations prescribed by God for Israel in the Mosaic Law because he is thoroughly convinced that the Lord does not want him to eat these foods.
“He gives thanks to God” teaches that the weak Christian who observes the dietary regulations of the Law gives thanks to the Father in prayer for these regulations since God prescribed these regulations for Israel to set them apart from the heathen nations.
So in Romans 14:6, we can see that in both cases, the strong and weak desire to obey God and in fact believe that they are.
They both have a conviction that God wants them to do certain things and not do certain things and are both sincere in their motivation and desire to obey God and give thanks to the Father.
Both want to obey God’s word and both believe that they are doing so and can cite passages of Scripture to support their convictions.
Both are not observing heathen practices and thus are not conforming to the standards of Satan’s cosmic system and are conducting themselves in a manner that they feel would make them pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Romans 14:6, Paul is trying to give the weak and the strong some perspective about each other in that they both are sincere in their motivation and both desire to please the Lord and both are not sinning!
He does this because he does not want them to divide over these issues of food and special days, which are non-essentials.
Today, non-essentials are water baptism, the observance of Lent in the Catholic Church or woman wearing hats in church or drinking alcohol.
Some Christians will not fellowship with other Christians because one believes in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church and another believes in mid or post-tribulation rapture.
Some Christians don’t observe Christmas because it is not commanded in the Word of God and believe that it is pagan in origin and they condemn those who do observe Christmas.
Christians divide over these things and this ought not to be and is a sign of immaturity and legalism.
The essentials that could not be compromised are the person of Christ, that He is both God and man, the Trinity and that justification is through faith alone in Christ alone and never by obedience to the Law or any system of merit.
Immorality of any kind in the church is not to be tolerated (1 Corinthians 5:1-11).
He does not want them to divide over non-essentials since the strong is not better than the weak because he eats all foods and doesn’t observe certain days like his weak brother or sister.
Neither, is the weak Christian better than the strong Christian because they don’t eat certain foods and observe certain days since there is no merit in what they practice.
Therefore, they were not to despise each other because of these non-essentials.